Archive for interview preparation
Media Tip #16: Your Comments Can Take on a Life of Their Own
Posted by: | CommentsI sent an email thanking people at the MAC 
only to have it appear front and center of this flyer promoting the program. Imagine my surprise when I saw my words staring at me from this poster while I did sit ups.
A reminder to each of us that our comments oftentimes take on a life of their own. Now give me 20 more push ups!
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations Named Agency for FCC Environmental, LLC
Posted by: | Comments
BALTIMORE, Md. (September 21, 2011) – Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, a Baltimore public relations firm, has been selected by FCC Environmental, LLC, one of the world’s largest environmental services companies with an expertise in waste oil collection and processing, for a comprehensive awareness campaign for its first sustainable used motor oil recycling facility.
The campaign will include strategic message development, traditional media relations, website development and management, community relations, crisis communications planning and spokesperson training.
The $50 million facility, to be located in Baltimore, is the first of several used motor oil recycling operations planned by the company in the United States.
About FCC Environmental
FCC Environmental, LLC provides recycling services for the automotive, commercial and industrial sectors of the U.S. economy. Its service offerings include used oil collection and processing, collection and recycling of used oil filters and antifreeze, along with parts cleaner supply and service, plus field service activity and emergency response capabilities to support the requirements of its customers.
Headquartered in Houston, FCC Environmental has maintained a regional office and operation in Baltimore since 1950. It has 38 branches and terminals throughout an 18 state operation, serving over 30,000 customer locations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), one of the world’s largest environmental service providers with headquarters in Madrid, Spain. With more than 90,000 employees operating in over 50 countries, FCC was able to provide the financial capability and leadership to allow FCC Environmental, LLC to expand its service offerings. For more information, visit www.FCCenvironmental.com.
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com.
Media Training Can Help in a Variety of Situations
Posted by: | CommentsIn getting ready for an important meeting later this week that will include an in-depth question and answer period, I was reminded of media training basics including answer only the question that was asked and do not speculate.
Learning how to deliver your key messages clearly, concisely and consistently has so many valuable uses beyond communicating effectively in a media interview such as meetings and presentations of all descriptions, employee/staff situations, hiring interviews, and even sensitive family discussions.
There are several other basic media interview tips that can come in handy in a variety of situations beyond those with the media. Email me at susan.anthony@sawmillmarketing and I will be happy to share them with you.
Media Training Tip #17: Prepare for More Than Just the Media Interview
Posted by: | CommentsA media training session, especially one that takes a broad view of learning how to clearly, concisely and accurately communicate your message,
can prepare you for important speaking opportunities beyond media interviews.
Consider a customized session when you have a critical internal meeting coming up, especially one that will include questions from your staff/employees; a major presentation to your board, key clients or prospects; or an industry event where your expertise will be in the limelight.
Practicing basic techniques such as bridging, flagging and counting in the context of your speaking situation, i.e., media interview versus major presentation or meeting, should be high on your “must do” preparation list.
Memo to Sheila Dixon: Say What???
Posted by: | Comments
Hey! Wait a minute, Ms. Dixon. It seems like yesterday you said you had nothing to apologize for when you resigned as Mayor of Baltimore. In fact, in a conversation I had with a former staff member only a few months ago, he emphatically said: “Sheila will never apologize.”
So here we are 11 months later and a Page One interview with you appears in the Dec. 10th edition of The Daily Record where you APOLOGIZE. To what purpose?
The time to have apologized, when it mattered most to the people you were elected to serve, was on January 6, 2010. But you didn’t. Instead, you concluded your brief remarks back then with: “What I owe the citizens is to move on and bring closure to this so we can continue to stay focused on the city.”
We can only hope that the recent crisis communications misstep had a shelf life of one news cycle and that’s that. Too little. Too late. And the citizens of Baltimore are doing as you advised: staying focused on the city.
Chapter closed.
Media Training Tip #11: Company is Coming!
Posted by: | Comments
In preparing for a visit from a member of the esteemed Fourth Estate, focusing on getting yourself ready with relevant talking points, answers to anticipated questions as well as a mock interview session or two are the obvious and right priorities.
However, you should regard this visit much as you would that of any VIP or a guest in your home. Make sure to communicate “Welcome” with a comfortable setting for the interview, appropriate refreshments, and check that the office areas are free of clutter and the restrooms are spotless. Simple but important.
Media Training Tip #11: Camera is Always Rolling
Posted by: | CommentsDuring our media training sessions we typically show examples of good and bad interviews to illustrate key points. Here’s a classic from television station KTVI Channel 2 in St. Louis that we should add to the mix! It features investigative reporter Elliott Davis confronting Joe Ortwerth, then-county executive of St. Charles (Mo.) County. Ortwerth didn’t take the “no comment” route, but instead chose a more bizarrre approach to “answering” the question! We first saw the interview a few years ago, but thanks to Ragan Communications (via Tripp Frohlichstein of Media Masters) for bringing it to our attention.
Two Media Interview Tips Worth Repeating
Posted by: | CommentsRecently a friend’s story was featured prominently in a less than accurate and less than flattering article in a business newspaper. The article provides an important opportunity to remind us all of a couple of tips when working with the Fourth Estate. For example:
When a reporter reaches out to you regarding a story, reach back. Ignoring the request does not make the story go away.
In fact, ignoring such a request (as our friend did) guarantees that the reporter will file the story without the benefit of your input which in this case would have corrected factual errors as well as provided the missing and critical context for the article.
A request for an “off-the-record” conversation from a reporter who you don’t have a long standing and trusting relationship with should not be automatically dismissed as our friend did.
Rather, get as much information as you can from the reporter, such as the anticipated story angle, who else she will be interviewing and a good sense of what she already knows.
Then give yourself time to collect your thoughts, including writing down a few anticipated questions from the reporter, your answers to them as well as key points you want to make.
Now here’s the deal: answer the reporter’s questions as if the interview were on-the-record, eliminating the possibility of seeing your off-the-record comments in the article.
The payoffs to this approach? The reporter is given a more complete picture of the situation. She now has information she likely didn’t have before and could get only from someone such as our friend. The reporter also has a new and reliable source for future articles, including updates on his story.
This way, our friend can tell his side of the story to someone who can help get it told to others, using the reporter’s off-the-record invitation to his skillful advantage. Everybody is happy.
Media Training Tip #22: TV Skills Now Needed for Print Interviews
Posted by: | Comments
In years past, some clients seeking media training could ask us to focus on prepping just for print interviews, as the likelihood of getting TV exposure was not that great, so why bother with the cameras?
Those days are over, as newspapers are evolving beyond ink and pulp-based sources for providing the news.
This week we assisted with a press conference that attracted five cameras among the media in attendance: all four Baltimore TV stations as well as a local business newspaper, The Daily Record, which assigned its camera-carrying multimedia reporter, Richard Simon, to cover the announcement.
In another recent example, we conducted a series of media training sessions for executives with a social-networking technology company. Starting with local and regional newspapers (partly to refine our message delivery before moving on to the national media and trade press) we included a stop at the Frederick News-Post in Maryland, hometown paper for one of the co-founders.
Sitting in the newsroom, we wrapped up a standard newspaper interview with one of the paper’s business writers for a cover story in the paper’s weekly business insert.
But the next step in the interview process revealed how far newspapers – even a 40,000-circulation daily in Central Maryland – have gone/are headed: they requested an interview for a video version of the story to appear in the multimedia section of the newspaper’s Web site. Our client had gone through Sawmill’s full media training session and was familiar with the nuances of a TV interview, so we were comfortable moving to the on-camera interview.
These real-life examples bring up an issue for executives thinking they can skip the TV-preparation portion of a media training session (and wear whatever they want to the newspaper interview!). Not anymore, as the lines blur and newspapers take on a greater role as multimedia providers of news.
